A subject in her dissertation study had been arrested for—Holy Christ, Chay thought, reading the arrest report—murder. He’d beaten the charge on a technicality, but the only person—probably the only one on the entire fucking planet—who didn’t think he was guilty was the guy’s mother.
Another subject—a female—was a sex offender. She was forty-five. Her specialty was boys under the age of twelve.
And one of Bianca’s patients was also a sex offender. He was a rapist, out on parole, facts he’d never bothered divulging.
Chay blew out a breath, sat back and folded his arms over his chest.
“We can eliminate the woman who digs little boys,” he said, his voice hoarse with exhaustion. “She deserves to have her picture on a dartboard, but for our purposes only the others are candidates for Shithead of the Year.”
“Couldn’t have put it better myself,” Declan agreed.
Chay rubbed his hands over his face. “It could be any of them.”
“Or not.” Bianca said. “The truth is, he might be nobody I know. Nobody I think I know. He could be a delivery man who dropped off a package at my apartment. A guy who lives in the building. A clerk I bought potatoes from at the greenmarket.”
Her voice trembled.
Chay got up, fast, went to her, dropped to knees beside her chair and took her hands in his.
“We’re all exhausted,” he said. “We need to get some sleep.”
Annie yawned in agreement. Dec began unplugging his equipment.
“I’m sorry,” Bianca whispered. “You’ve all worked so hard. And I know we’ve made progress. It’s just that—that I don’t see how we’re ever going to make sense of this mess.”
“We’ll start by interviewing some of these people.”
“But they’re all back east.”
“I can do a lot by phone,” Chay said. “And after a couple of days, when I think you’re up to me leaving you here, I’ll fly back to New York.”
“You are not doing that without me!”
“Bianca,” Annie said quickly, “you can stay with me. I have an apartment just off campus.”
“Or she can stay right here,” Sanchez said. “I can bunk on the couch until Chay’s back.”
Bianca looked from one of them to the other.
“You don’t understand. Wherever Chay is, is where I want to be.”
The room filled with silence.
Bianca wanted to crawl into a corner and hide.
Oh God! Had she really said that?
Everything she felt for Chay was in that admission. Everything. Declan knew it. So did Annie. She could see it in their shocked expressions.
Most of all…most of all, Chay knew it too. She’d stripped herself bare, told him something he certainly didn’t want to hear.
“Honey,” he said softly.
She had to remedy it. Say something. Twist the meaning.
A deep breath. A fixed smile. Then she tugged her hands free of his and stood up.
“I am the reason Chayton is knee-deep in this situation,” she said. “And I am not going to remove myself from dealing with the problem. Whatever must be done next, I will be there when it is done. You know what they say. If you are not part of the program, you are part of the difficulty.”